


Please Take To Your Seats For Landing

by Sunflxwerbullet



Series: I’ll wait for you [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Daryl Dixon Needs a Hug, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Good Friend Shane Walsh, Good Person Shane Walsh, Gun Violence, Hurt Daryl Dixon, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Sex, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Insecure Daryl Dixon, Love, Non-Graphic Smut, Prison (Walking Dead), Protective Daryl Dixon, Protective Shane Walsh, Shane Walsh Has Issues, Suggestive Themes, The Greene Farm (Walking Dead), Violence, Violence Against Walkers (Walking Dead), Walkers, Walkers (Walking Dead)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29286042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunflxwerbullet/pseuds/Sunflxwerbullet
Summary: No one expected that the end of the world would happen during their lifetime, but unfortunately it did.All Gwen’s doing is trying to survive, and hopefully, stop running.
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Original Female Character(s), Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s)
Series: I’ll wait for you [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2150724
Kudos: 6





	1. Landing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got the first chapter up! I hope you like it, whilst there is no Daryl in this chapter just yet we’ll get there soon enough.  
> Also the songs are inserted into the story at the right points, when you see it you can either pause, listen to it and then continue or just listen whilst you read (however that might mean the song lasts longer than the scene does).  
> You’re under no obligation to listen to anything but it can help improve the experience if you do.  
> (The playlist will be linked in the next part in this ‘series’)

The small plastic tree that she’d found in the basement of the house, sat sadly in front of the window.

She’d found no decorations despite a thorough searching.

It still felt weird to her to be searching through boxes of a dead person's stuff, but based on the bodies she’d found inhabiting the dining room of the house, they would no longer be needing it, and she did...well maybe she didn’t need Christmas decorations but they always cheered her up and so she sure wanted them given the current situation of the world.

-

_"Gwen, run!" Her father had shouted,"and don’t look back, we’ll be right behind you."_

_They were in fact not going to be right behind her, but neither of them knew that quite yet._

-

She picked up the black biro pen she’d found in one of the dead folks pockets and used it to mark off another day in the calendar as the sky was growing dark outside.

This made four weeks completely blacked out, four weeks of being alone in an apocalyptic world stared back at her from the paper.

She already looked different, were anyone to say people changed during an apocalypse then they would be right.

A groaning sound filled the air, it was coming from beside the kitchen window.

She snuck around the corner and moved the curtain ever so slightly to look outside, the view that greeted her was not very welcoming.

A hoard of the undead was passing right in front of the creepy semicircle of houses that she’d found during her first week out here.

-

** Exit Music (for a film) - Radiohead  **

-

_The roads outside the airport where she’d landed were overrun the moment the sound of the plane hit the area._

_Hands were outstretched towards her as she ran as fast as her legs would carry her, away from the bloody scene behind her._

_Loud groans filled the air as zombies shuffled towards her, for them the scent of the living was overwhelming, for her all she could smell was rotting flesh._

-

The memory stuck in her head and came back up any time she saw one; the stench of death, despite being outside the securely locked house, filled her lungs.

The half rotted face of someone, who, based on their clothing, used to work at a hospital, moved slowly into sight through the window; they turned and looked straight at her, how they saw her through the small gap in the curtains she was peeking through she never knew, but it didn’t matter how they saw her, it only mattered that they did.

The creature in front of her let out a low grunt and took a few steps towards the glass.

She had stumbled back in surprise, dropping the curtain; the nurse, or doctor she wasn’t sure, was holding the hand of a child, not an alive happy looking child, this child looked empty...and hungry.

She ran towards the front door and rattled the handle, checking it was locked; once confirming it was, indeed, secure she grabbed the knife off of the coffee table and sat beside the door, a piece of the banister (that she’d had to wrestle with for at least an hour before any of it decided to move) resting against her shoulder as she roughly whittled the end away into a point.

-

_A sudden rise in the pavement had her falling to the ground, the shuffling feet of the crowd were getting closer and closer and Gwen pulled herself up as quickly as possible._

_Her legs ached as she ran further down the street, she spotted a large black pick-up on the opposite side of the street a few kilometres away and headed towards it, praying to...anyone who may be listening that there were keys inside._

_She didn’t actually know how to drive but given the state of the world she doubted dying in a car crash was the worst way to go or the worst of her worries._

_When she reached it she pulled hard on the door and it swung open, the original occupant was still in the driver's seat and she immediately covered her mouth with her sleeve at the smell and the sight._

_In order to get it she was going to have to get them out, and she didn’t have long._

_Bracing herself against the door she grabbed the person's arm and pulled, putting all her weight into it. They fell out of the car after a good amount of pulling and she got up from where she’d fallen after they’d finally shifted._

_She pushed them aside and hopped in, her hand immediately went to the ignition and grabbed empty space._

_Disappointment settled in her stomach and she glanced through the windshield to see if it was worth making a run for it._

_Upon deciding it was, she moved her foot to get out but she heard a metallic sound from below her, she hesitated, one hand on the door handle, she reached down hurriedly and found a keyring on the floor._

_Ignoring the obvious house key, they had it cut in the shape of a house, and the large green pom-pom, she fumbled with the others until one finally fit._

_She glanced back out the door and her jaw dropped at the sight, she had to get out of here as quick as possible._

_The door was pulled closed quietly and she started the engine, time to figure this out,no pressure._

-

** Theme from ‘the walking dead’ - Bear McCreary  **

-

The sun was rising over the tops of the trees and made the sky a wonderful pink tone, there was no noise in the secluded patch of houses.

The front door was wide open and she sat on the doorstep; the sea of gravel that surrounded the houses was doused in blood from the various walkers that had shown up the night before.

Her hair was pulled up high into a ponytail to avoid getting as bloody as her face had gotten.

The piece of the banister that she had make-shifted into a spear was laying at her feet, blood and guts over the entire thing, everything having soaked into the wood making it near unusable.

She was tired of everything, the walkers, the waiting around for god knows what, and also just from pure exhaustion, she hadn’t been able to sleep for at least 52 hours due to the feeling that she needed to keep an eye out for anyone.

No one had found her yet, she had no reason to believe anyone from the airport survived, but what else could she do other than hope.

She was running low on food; there were three houses in the semicircle and upon finding the weird place in the middle of the forest she had gone through all of them, collecting what she could and picking the best house out of the three to hold up in.

The loneliness was starting to get to her, she’d ran into three people during her escape from the airport; one she’d met almost immediately, she’d seen him hiding in an alleyway between stores on the high street and pulled over straight away. The other two she met about two days after landing in the country, one was nicer than the other and it had made her sad to lose someone else but they had somewhere they were going to and they didn’t have space for another person.

Now she was alone and she wasn’t liking it, guilt was still the only thing keeping her alive, she could have walked out to the street at any point and attracted one of the undead, or she could have just let herself bleed out, almost anything looked more enticing than having to go through this all by herself.

-

_Hands were reaching for the back of the car just as she managed to start moving, she reversed slightly before peeling away from the curb and heading off down the high street._

_She slowed down enough that she could take a look out of the back window because the noises had grown fainter and fainter._

_They were still coming towards her but there were two crashed cars either side of the street that were blocking them in, thankfully they’d bought her enough time to do what she needed to next; out of the corner of her eye she spotted movement down an alleyway._

_Her initial assumption was that it was one of the undead so she kept driving, however slower than before because she couldn’t help feeling like she needed to go and see._

_So she did._

_She opened the door cautiously but quickly and snuck around cars until she was beside the alley, "Hey there, are you...safe?"_

_No reply came back so she took a look at the hoard and her car defeatedly, she couldn't waste much more time or she’d be dead._

_It was then that a hand reached out for her shoulder and she spun around at the same time as stepping back, fear jumping up to her throat._

_"Sorry, i didn’t know what to do."_

_Someone around nineteen, so not that much younger than her, was now standing in front of her._

_"It doesn’t matter, just come on, we don’t have long or we’ll have no chance of getting out."_

_They followed her back to the car; the groans of the dead were now getting louder as a large group had reached the area past the car barrier._

_"Can you drive?" They asked whilst they both got in._

_"In mario kart? Sure. I’m purely winging this but you don’t have many options.”_

_She’d taken too long and some had managed to reach the car, one of them started to bang on the passenger side window and they both jumped._

_Her foot immediately went to the gas and the car jolted forward._

_She didn’t stop or take her foot off for a good ten minutes._

_By that time they had reached a much smaller street quite a while away; houses lined both sides, cars were half in half out the driveways, some hadn’t even made it that far._

_She could safely say they weren’t going to be followed, not by that group anyway._

_She turned to the person she’d just met intending to introduce herself but they beat her to it._

_"My name’s Jack, I lived around there and I was looking for my family, my parents had just gone on a scavenging trip, they needed to see if they could grab any more food, I was supposed to stay behind to look after my brother...when they didn’t come back after a few hours we both started to get worried. He followed me but he wasn’t quick enough and they- I kept looking but I couldn’t see my parents anywhere...so I’m pretty sure I’m alone now." They took a large breath and fell into silence._

_They both sat there awkwardly until a few moments later, she decided it was only fair that she gave some information in return._

_"My name’s Gwen, my family- we flew over, that’s where I came from, the airport, I don’t think I have anyone left either."_

-

It was then that she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and she stood up, immediately alert, her hand reaching for the disgusting DIY spear.

She called out gently, hoping it was someone alive, someone who’d stay.

She got 50% of what she wanted, a small child came peering out from behind a tree, they looked terrified, probably because of the view before them.

For anyone who hadn’t been there to experience the previous night they might take one look at the scene and assume she was an axe murder or serial killer.

Before she could say anything else one of the undead came stumbling towards them and they screamed.

They fell backwards and she sprinted forward, blocking them off from the sight or reach of the hungry rotten bastard.

She flipped the makeshift spear around in her hand and took a swing at its head, she’d had enough practice from the previous night alone to separate the head from the shoulders.

It fell to the ground in front of her and she stepped over it to where the head had rolled and impaled it with the pointy end for good measure.

She didn’t want some cannibalistic severed head snapping at her ankles next time she came outside.

"Hey there, you must be lost, are you okay?" She turned and took a step towards them and they flinched backward so she stilled completely.

"Hi, I lost my mum, I don’t know how to get back." They slowly walked around the tree and got a bit closer, still far enough away to make a run for it if Gwen wasn’t safe.

"You look exhausted, come on inside and I’ll get you something to eat, you’re going to need your strength if we’re going to get you back to your mother." She beckoned them closer and took a step towards the house, "I promise I’m safe, no bites, not crazy, but I can help."

They followed her into the house and spoke just before she closed the front door, "My name’s Sophia."

-

_Her and Jack had sat in awkward silence for about half an hour before she decided to head onto the next part of town._

_She pulled up next to a small convenience store and got out, she turned to talk to Jack but he was looking out of the windshield, there were two people lying on the ground not too far in front of the car, well they used to be people...before the undead got to them, now they were little more than bloody leftovers._

_"Jack..." she started to speak but he’d already opened his door and fallen to the floor next to them._

_"Not them, why them." He was muttering loudly, his shoulders shook and she looked on unsure of what to do._

_It’s not like she’d had training for this kind of situation, she considered herself quite an empathetic human and obviously she was sad for the guy, but all she could think about was the amount of noise he was creating and therefore how much attention they were drawing to themselves._

_"Jack we have to go, we have to get out of here." She pulled gently on his arm in hopes that she could pull him away in the general area of the store and be on their way but he didn’t budge._

_"I’m not going anywhere, I can’t leave them..."_

_"Jack you’ll die if you stay here, they wouldn’t have wanted that for you, surely," she tried to console him but it wasn’t working, "I can’t leave you behind."_

_"I’d rather die and be with them than live without them."_

_He was getting louder every time he spoke and she looked around nervously._

_A shuffling sound came from the street in front of them, a confused wandering ex-human came out from behind a car._

-

She was starting to understand what Jack had meant, the longer she spent by herself the more that ideology seemed best.

-

_It was then that she felt something heavy and metal being pressed into her open hand._

_"What-" her words got caught in her throat as she realised what it was, "I’m not doing that..."_

_‘Please," his voice was distressed and sounded strained, "I know we just met but please do this for me, I need you to."_

_The next sound to permeate the air was a gunshot, the first of the five bullets that were already loaded into the gun left it, the sound was loud enough to leave her ears ringing._

_This drew the attention of any nearby walkers and she knew she didn’t have long to get out safely._

_She had to forgo the idea of the scavenging trip and hopped back into the driver's seat, her hand was still gripped tightly on the gun but she carefully placed it on the now empty passenger seat before reversing quickly and driving away, ignoring all the noises around her and the movements she could see out of the corner of her eye._

-

She had sat the girl down at the kitchen table immediately and opened the cupboards trying to find the best of what was left, she’d been there for a while so there wasn’t much left.

But she looked completely exhausted so it seemed worth it even if it didn’t leave much for her.

There was more left than she remembered there being; she held up a Twinkie and an apple, "balanced enough? I can cook something too."

She nodded quickly and Gwen smiled, placing both items in front of her then setting about lighting the small camping fire she had set up on the counter.

"My name’s Gwen," she told her, "why are you out here in the first place? Someone your age shouldn’t even be in the position to get lost, not in the middle of an apocalyptic world."

"We were up on the motorway but I got scared by one of them and it chased me into the woods." She said with her mouth full.

"Well as long as you’re with me you have nothing to worry about, I won't let that happen to you again i promise."

Daylight was now streaming in through the window despite the ratty curtain, "We’ll head out as soon as you’re rested, as long as it’s still daylight, I don’t want us going into there at night, even I wouldn’t be crazy enough to do that and I’ve done some pretty crazy things ."

She cracked a smile and sighed as the match finally lit and the fire got started.

-

Night seemed to creep up on them very quickly, she managed to get her to rest, Sophia was currently lying down on the sofa in the front room.

Gwen was sitting, looking out of the windows checking for anything that shouldn’t be there, she was tired but she didn’t want to go away from her watch.

She said she’d keep her safe and that’s what she was going to do, she’d travelled further when she was more tired, she could do it again.

Nothing had moved for hours, the lack of noise and movement combined wasn’t helping her stay awake.

She stole a sideways glance at her phone and the pair of headphones that were wound around it.

She had about 30% left of battery percentage, she was saving it till she needed it, but it was killing her to go so long without music.

It was the main thing she used to use to raise her spirits and if any time needed that it was now.

She made the decision despite how clever she thought it was; whilst Gwen waited for it to turn on she took a last look out the window and turned to face the interior of the house.

She grabbed a blanket off of the back of a chair and draped it over herself, plugging her headphones in and pressing shuffle.

She sighed and let herself relax, the music filling her head.

**"I wake up I’m afraid"**

-

** Afraid - The Neighbourhood **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The writing gets better and more in depth as the story progresses, I was getting back into the swing of writing at the early points of the story but by now I’ve written 10’s of thousands of words so like- I’ve gotten better!


	2. Lead Me Home

_She pulled over at the first motel she found out of town; she’d been driving for an hour and she was glad to find somewhere that seemed quite empty._

_The car park was empty, trash littered all over the place, doors to a few of the rooms were open and as she opened the car door to get out she realised what she couldn’t see from inside the car; dead bodies lay behind most of the doors, except these were the normal kind, not the up and walking and apparently starving ones she had encountered earlier._

_Though there was nothing normal about the circumstances that led these poor souls to their deaths._

_There was nothing she could do about it now, all she could do was make sure there was nothing left around there that could hurt her, and if there was then she was just going to have to hurt them first._

_Her first destination was the check-in area, the door to there was wide open too._

_She stepped over the body of someone who she assumed used to work there; it looked like they’d just died normally, so she didn’t think too much about them._

_She entered the back of the room to find the remains of- something, which wasn’t left with anything identifiable._

_The room seemed empty apart from that so she headed back out to fetch any keys that could possibly lead to a safe room._

-

**Theme from The Walking Dead - Bear McCreary**

-

Light filtered through the glass in the front door and she sat up awkwardly, stretching and cracking her back as she woke up from the best sleep she’d had in ages, it was also the only sleep she’d had in ages which could have had a large part to do with it.

She glanced over towards the sofa where she’d left the sleeping girl and upon seeing it was empty she stood up immediately, pulling the headphones out of her ears and calling out for her.

Silence filled the house until she heard a quiet voice from upstairs ask where the bathroom was, she sighed with relief and took the stairs two at a time to show her where it was.

The house was massive, all three of them were; it was odd really, she had no idea why they were out here in the middle of nowhere.

They all had large basements and attics completely filled with stuff.

The kitchens in all three had been fully stocked; they had boxes in the basement, along with all the other stuff that was harder to explain, that were filled with what seemed like survival kits.

Once Sophia was done they both went downstairs and she started to cook some breakfast; "we’ll head off after this okay, you said you were on the motorway right? I know what direction that's in so we shouldn’t get lost at all, like I said last night I’m going to get you back to your mother and you won’t have to worry at all about the undead, I’ll deal with them."

"Like the ones in the other room?" She pointed towards the closed but now very unlocked door.

"Not exactly, like the ones out front, the people in there were already there when I got here and I didn’t really feel like carrying dead people through the house. Plus it seemed a little disrespectful to move them, so I didn’t."

She shrugged and continued to eat, "if you want to help we can pack up some things you think they might be able to use, your group I mean, I’m sure none of them would say no to a little extra food."

She nodded and copied her actions, tucking into her food as though it was the best thing that she’d eaten in ages, which Gwen severely doubted, she was a shit cook.

-

**Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down (only for this paragraph of italics)**

-

_She needed somewhere to stay if she wasn’t going to die straight away, which seemed like it would have just been a waste of everyone else’s lives considering what they’d done for her._

_She shook her head and tried not to think about it too hard; she glanced back up to see someone move near ‘her’ car, she immediately took a step towards the door, whether the person was alive or dead didn’t matter, she didn’t want them near it._

_She barely had time to register a hand grabbing her ankle before she was hitting the floor hard._

_She scrambled backwards, her hand grabbing onto a part of the frankly very shoddy door frame, all she was trying to do was give herself enough leverage to get back up again._

_She was kicking out towards the thing that was coming towards her when a piece of the doorframe started to break away from the structure._

_She felt triumphant for a second before the creature let out another growl and continued to grab at any part of her it could._

_She decided to go with the more dangerous option and just stopped struggling; it got incredibly close to taking a bite out of her arm when she managed to shove the wood through its throat._

_It gave her enough of a chance to get through the door, but by that time the one that had been over by her car had heard her as she was screaming and was now stumbling over towards her._

_She got to her feet and backed away so both were now coming towards her._

_She could see the car over the shoulder of the second one, the first one was dragging itself along on the floor as it seemed to be missing its legs._

_All she had to do was get back to the car where the gun still lay, she had four bullets left and she wasn’t the best shot._

_Jack had been still and right in front of her, these were angry and moving; speaking of moving they were both far too close to her for comfort but she was glad to note no one else had joined them._

_She sprinted towards the car as quickly as she could and, predictably, dropped the keys._

_She could hear them behind her and ducked as a hand reached out towards her, she grabbed the keys from the floor and made a run for it._

_She made it out onto the road, she heard a noise to her left and she looked to see a car hurtling towards her far too fast to be within the speed limit but it was the end of the world most people wouldn’t care anymore._

_She jumped out of the way and looked between the car that how now skidded to a halt on her right after it almost hit her and the undead that were coming towards her._

_She stood in place and scanned her surroundings for anything that might help, she spotted a signpost that had been smashed into, by someone else like the two that were getting out of the truck, and now lay on the side of the road._

_The next thing she knew she’d walked over and picked it up, spinning it over in her hand and testing the weight of it._

_She used all of her body weight to snap off the top of the sign so she was left with just the metal part, then she spun around to face the creatures that were trying to kill her and grinned._

_Her smile fell when the head from one of them flew from its shoulders and landed at her feet._

_She stared down at it and moved her gaze back up to where the rest of its body was now falling to the floor for the other one to crawl over._

_"I was handling it." She said angrily and walked over to stab the metal through the last ones head._

_"Ya were going to die, yer welcome for saving ya."_

_"Saving me?" She exploded, "Who are you and why the hell should I thank you, to be fair it was the least you could do after almost running me over."_

_"Ya were the one that stood in the middle of the road despite hearin’ and seein’ a truck coming."_

_She groaned and pulled the metal from its head, grimacing at the sound it made and wiped the end of it on the clothes of the one at her feet._

_"I moved- it doesn’t matter, I didn’t need saving. I was doing plenty fine by myself before you showed up."_

-

She emptied one of the boxes of Christmas decorations she’d found in the attic so that she could repurpose the box for the ‘gift’.

She’d left Sophia in the kitchen to pick out some food whilst she went to fetch it, apparently the kid had a knack for disappearing because when she returned downstairs Sophia was gone again.

She sighed and called out, looking around for where she possibly could have gone, she saw the door to the basement was ajar and headed over.

"Sophia, hey what are you doing?"

She stood at the bottom of the stairs trying to open the second door, "What’s in there?"

Gwen beckoned her back up and she followed her, "Guns." She replied.

She saw no sense in lying to her, she wasn’t going to gain her trust by doing that.

"I don’t know why they’re all there, whoever used to own this house must have been a hunter or something, I’ve kept them locked up since I found them because I didn’t want to risk anyone finding them. Given the world's predicament I don’t doubt someone would be willing to kill for them."

She saw how scared she looked and laughed to try to lighten the mood, "No one’s even been around here except for the dead ones, and hey, we’re the ones with the guns right now, seems like we have the high ground."

She changed the subject, "So what did you pick out?" Gwen smiled and nodded towards the pile of things on the counter.

-

**Lead Me Home - Jamie N Commons (For the current parts/ _not_ italics)**

-

She pulled a coat out of one of the wardrobes and put it on, she didn’t know how cold it was going to be and she wanted to be prepared.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a large camping backpack at the back of the closet, that would come in useful, she was thinking of the awkwardly sized and heavy box in the kitchen that the kid was going to have to carry.

She headed back downstairs with her find and began to transfer everything to it.

"Hey kid, you ready to get back?" Gwen turned and grinned at her, "won’t be long now promise, a couple of hours and you’ll be back with your mother like you should be."

She nodded happily and went to open the door.

"Hold on!" She said quickly, reaching a hand out and stopping her, "always me first okay, promise me that."

Sophia nodded again and dropped her hand.

Gwen stood up straight and shrugged the backpack on.

The door opened and she stepped out into the sunlight, "come on it’s safe."

-

_The new guy smiled at her but it was the type of smile that made her feel like shrinking into herself._

_She didn’t believe there was any other smile that could make someone as self-conscious as that one,_

_"I’ never had a damsel in distress be so ungrateful."_

_"I’m not, a damsel" she ground out, walking back towards her car, she couldn’t believe his nerve._

_"Well ya will be if I have anything to do with it." He stepped towards her, blocking the driver’s side door._

_"And what exactly do you mean by that?" She looked up from the door handle to his face._

_His companion took a step towards them both and opened his mouth to speak but seemed to change his mind._

_"If you touch me at all you’ll wish you had one of them to deal with instead of me, I can promise you that."_

_She pulled on the car door and shoved him out of the way, bending down to reach for the gun in the passenger seat._

_She felt someone behind her and then someone’s hand was on her thigh, though it was barely that low._

_She stood up and spun around, the gun pressed right against his chest._

_"I said don’t touch me."_

-

She brushed a branch out of her way and let Sophia step in front of her.

They’d been walking for what seemed like half an hour and she hadn’t heard or seen anything, they were being overwhelmingly lucky and she didn’t know what was happening, the woods were never that quiet.

-

**Someone pushed his way through the tree branches in front of him until he came out into a clearing.**

**He took in the scene in front of him in surprise and walked towards the nearest house out of three.**

**The place seemed to be deserted, the front door was closed but unlocked as he found out when they tried the handle.**

**He called out a name and looked around; he pressed his ear against the padlocked door, checking for what was inside, silence was the only thing that came from inside so he managed to break the padlock from the door and cracked it open slowly.**

**He raised his weapon, an arrow already loaded into the crossbow, and took a look around the room.**

**There were three dead bodies sitting on the sofa and armchair, all three facing the broken but boarded up window.**

**Blood was splattered across the furniture, staining the cream carpet, reaching high up the walls.**

**The rest of the room was empty of people so he carefully went over to check they were actually dead, he couldn’t find any obvious bite marks so left them be and headed back out to the rest of the house.**

**"Sophia?"**

-

She heard a twig snap behind them and she froze in place, reaching a hand out in front of the girl to stop her moving.

Gwen shrugged off the backpack and her hand immediately went to her belt where a gun lay.

"Don’t move, I’ve got this."

She turned slowly and saw movement between the trees off to her right, "Hey dead dude, over here!"

She called out quietly enough that no one other than that one should have heard her.

They both heard a groan as it turned and stumbled towards them, it tripped over a tree root which gave her extra time to train her gun on its head.

Before it had the chance to move any further she shot it through the head, cutting the amount of bullets she had down from three to two, and quickly picked the bag back up again.

"Let’s go in case anything heard that," she ushered Sophia ahead and followed close behind, keeping her eyes and ears peeled for anything.

-

_He laughed and moved backwards, "I doubt yer the type to shoot someone in cold blood."_

_"That’s how I got the gun."_

_The other one was surveying the situation and had moved to go investigate the check-in area._

_She looked over at him, ignoring the man in front of her, "I’ve already done that, there’s no one dangerous left in there, and the food I could see all looked rotten. Nothing worth saving."_

_He watched as she pushed past his brother and walked towards him,"How long have ya been here?"_

_"Nice to meet you too, two days, me and- we landed at the airport in town." She pointed back in the direction she’d come from._

_"Where are ya from?" He asked as he backed into the doorway of one of the open motel rooms and looked inside._

_"England. You couldn’t tell?" She smiled and did the same, checking the room next to it._

_She could see movement in the dark and held on tighter to the, now bloody, metal pole._

_She held a finger up to her lips as the stranger walked around her, tilting her head towards the room she reached a hand slowly through the crack to click the light on._

_Taking a step back immediately and kicking the door open wider, one of the creatures ran at them from inside and before she could raise the metal to ram it through its chest an arrow whistled past her and hit it right between the eyes._

_"I don’t miss."_

_She glanced at him, somewhat impressed but trying not to show it._

_"I plan on taking advantage of that." She informed him._

_"Stop yer flirting little brother and get over here, we have places to be getting to.”_


	3. Moonlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The playlist is linked in the next part of this ‘series’  
> Feel free to listen to the songs when they show up, either before you continue reading or alongside the story. Each one matches up with the right moment or scene.

**He made his way back to the motorway and shook his head at the people who were waiting for news.** ****

**"Found a house, seemed like someone had been there but i don’t think it was Sophia, we’ll find her though, she can’t have gotten that far."**

**Carol turned and silently entered the RV again.**

**He sighed and perched on the hood of a car, "I could’ve gone further but there were tracks that headed back this direction. I lost them"**

**Dale turned to him, "You’ll just have to try again tomorrow."**

**Daryl raised an eyebrow at that, he didn’t like the old man's tone but now wasn’t the time for a fight and even he realised that.**

**He walked over to the RV and stepped inside, closing the door behind him, slowly twirling a flower between his fingertips secretly.**

**Dale turned away and went to climb back up to keep watch.**

-

**Theme from The Walking Dead - Bear McCreary**

-

Gwen helped the kid over the barrier and stepped over herself, "do you know where they’d be?" She asked her quietly.

Whilst they were in fact out of the woods they weren’t necessarily safe yet.

"We were further up I think," she was scanning over all the cars and Gwen put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on," Gwen headed forward to keep Sophia protected behind her.

"There!" She said excitedly and pointed ahead of them where an RV was parked on a diagonal where the traffic stopped.

She went to run forward but Gwen held her back, "Just in case, we can’t get too complacent."

She checked around them both and forged ahead, winding between the cars until she had the full RV in their sights.

She couldn’t see anyone around and Gwen was scared of what they were going to find but she didn’t want to let that on.

She reached the RV and stopped beside the door, they could hear voices inside and she sighed, it had been too long since she’d heard other people.

"Mum!" She called out and the door was thrown open immediately, it hit Gwen in the face and she held her nose in pain.

Someone who she assumed was her mother came out and fell to the ground, hugging her daughter tightly as though she’d never let go again.

"Baby? How’d you get back."

Gwen could hear her muffled speech and was going to step forward and introduce herself when Sophia spoke.

"I met someone, she helped, she’s so cool."

Gwen hid a smile behind her hand and took a step out into the open.

Someone else stepped out of the vehicle and she turned to introduce herself.

Sound caught in her throat but nothing came out of her mouth.

-

**As the world caves in - Matt Maltese**

-

_ Night was falling over the world and Gwen sat in her car wasting time. _

_ For safety's sake Gwen and the two guys had decided to stay in the same motel room, three is safer than one when it comes to being alert and they’d decided against leaving since driving at night seemed more dangerous than just staying put. _

_ She didn’t fully trust them yet, which was to be expected since she’d just met them. _

_ One of them, Daryl, was nicer; though that seemed to be more when it was only them and not all three. _

_ Speaking of, he was heading over to ‘her’ car, "hello there." _

_ "Hey," she turned in the seat to get up out of the car but he was now standing in front of her blocking her way, "Do you mind?" _

_ "I just wanted to tell ya," he ignored her and continued to stand where he was without moving an inch, "Just ignore my brother all right, if Merle does anything too strong I’ tell him to stop, if yer need my help that is. He m- well he doesn’t really mean well that’s just how he is." _

_ She nodded, standing up so she was pressed against the car and glanced over at the room they’d picked, there was barely any difference between them but this was the only one with multiple beds; Daryl had volunteered to take the floor before she could protest otherwise. _

_ Plus it had a working, and more importantly, hot, shower. _

_ The rooms were small so for privacy reasons they’d all agreed to stay outside in their respective cars whilst the others showered. _

_ Well one of them had begrudgingly agreed but like Daryl said she was going to ignore him. _

_ "To be fair I was more in disbelief than I was annoyed or anything, which obviously I should be, it was a gross way to act, but I’m just not used to it, before all of this I didn’t really go out much, though I doubt if I had I would have gotten used to it. Even pervy catcallers have to have some form of a type and I doubt I’m it." _

_ He stared at her and she couldn’t quite tell what was happening, "Hey Daryl, you still in there? Please tell me you didn’t have a heart attack or something on the spot because that's going to be real awkward to tell your brother." _

_ "Yeah ‘m still ‘ere, just- ya have to be fucking wit me" he watched nervously for her reaction; comfortable in knowing if she was uncomfortable with the situation she would just threaten him like she did Merle. _

_ "What?" Gwen spoke softly, she wasn’t sure he’d heard her and was about to repeat herself when he spoke. _

_ "Yer stupidly pretty-" He was aware that he was staring at her, Merles’ voice lingering in the back of his head telling him to get a move on or he’d take advantage of the situation instead. _

_ Gwen didn’t know how to reply, temporarily lost for words at the compliment; She wanted to wipe her last experiences in that department out completely and this seemed like a good way to do it, so instead of replying she decided to take the piece of advice her mum had given her repeatedly despite her despising it, and she took initiative. _

_ She raised a hand slowly up to the back of his neck and leant upwards on her toes, watching his facial expressions in case he seemed uncomfortable; but that didn’t seem to be an issue. _

_ Daryl met her in the middle and she melted into him; he had one hand resting on her waist, pulling her closer to him and had his other hand tangled in her hair at the nape of her neck, tilting her head backwards as he pressed her back against the car. _

_ He had been the first to break away, apprehension in his eyes, and she stared at him for a second without speaking, their breathing was heavy and laboured, her mind simultaneously in a million places and one, very obvious, place. _

_ Before she could open her mouth to say anything he had lowered his hand to her cheek, "Do ya want to do this?" _

_ She looked up into his eyes, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back towards her. _

_ The kiss that ensued was passionate and hungry, as though they were both each other’s only source of oxygen. _

_ Like they needed each other to live. _

_ The world around them seemed like it was fading away, and for a moment, for a blissful moment they could forget about everything. _

_ After a while she pulled away, both of them breathing heavily; she rest her forehead on his and muttered "god yes." _

_ He looked over at the motel room where they could see a shadow moving about inside, meaning Merle had finished and was probably going to be coming out to switch places soon. _

_ Gwen looked at him intently trying to figure out what was going through his mind and if he was thinking the same ‘one thing’ as she was. _

_ The moment he turned back to face her she knew he was. _

_ She tilted her head towards the room, "I could ask who was going next but...we could always conserve it, we wouldn’t want to run out of hot water." She moved her hand down from his neck to fiddle with the hem of her shirt and she could see his eyes following her hand. _

_ "-Yeah," his voice sounded strained and she smiled. _

_ "Move your ass then, a girl can’t wait all night," she laughed quietly and backed away towards the motel room. _

-

_ She reached for the tap and turned it on, she didn’t fancy stepping into a freezing cold shower. _

_ The energy in the room had turned somewhat awkward and so she turned, running a hand down the side of his face. _

_ Both of them were comfortable in the knowledge that they were alone and Merle was outside. _

_ "Cmon then, where were we?" she smiled and started to unbutton her own shirt. _

_ Her hands fell to her sides soon after because his hands had taken their place. _

_ She let it fall from her shoulders to the floor and unbuttoned her jeans, adding them to the growing pile on the floor. _

_ He raised an eyebrow in her direction and she looped her arms around his neck; pushing the shower door closed and leaning back against it. _

_ "Somewhere ‘bout here I believe," he murmured quietly before he leant in to kiss her. _

_ When they parted again she turned her attention to the man in front of her who was staring at her with a look she couldn’t quite identify, there was a slight hesitation in his movements, an endearing unsure look in his eyes as though he couldn’t quite believe she was doing this. _

_ Picking him. _

_ Hands reached for each other, tangling themselves in hair, hurriedly unbuttoning and unbuckling, shoving clothes off and towards the floor; neither caring where they landed or about the noise they were creating. _

_ Then he’d backed her into the shower, pressing her up against the wall and swallowing any and all sounds she was making as they kissed, neither person moving apart for longer than a second. _

_ The small bathroom was lit only by moonlight that was streaming through the small window high up on one wall, they could make out each other easy enough but the specifics of each other’s bodies would have to wait for another time. _

-

_ She wrapped a towel around herself, glad she’d thought ahead far enough to pack everything in one bag. _

_ The air in the small bathroom was hot and not just because of the shower. _

_ Neither of them had spoken yet and Gwen looked up at him trying to figure out what to say. _

_ She didn’t have to think for long because a voice came from the main part of the room, "Hey little brother, I think the girl got eaten, she’s not ‘n ‘er car." _

_ She placed a hand on his arm to stop him getting changed, "No!, we just decided to switch," she grabbed her clothes as speedily as possible and threw her hair up out of the way. _

_ She turned the shower back on and closed the door behind her as she exited it. _

_ "I tried to insist he could go first but he wouldn’t listen." _

_ She felt goosebumps on her arms and leg as soon as she’d stepped out of the warm bathroom, the front door was open and the air was- _

_ "It’s cold as fuck out there I’m not going back." He was staring at her and she dropped her clothes to the bed, crossing her arms across her chest. _

_ She wished the younger version of herself that was packing her bag could have known to pack bigger towels. _

_ "That’s fine but- can you turn around please?" _

_ He smiled and Gwen squinted distrustingly as he turned around, she was about to drop the towel when she realised there was a mirror in front of him. _

_ "Hey, mirrors are cheating, face a proper wall." _

_ His shoulders slumped but she caught a glimpse of a smile in the mirror before he turned to his right and faced the wall. _

_ "Thank you" she said softly and got changed quickly before sitting on the end of the bed. _

_ "Just don’t tell anyone I took orders from a woman." _

_ "That’s se- fine , just don’t be all creepy again." _

-

**Alive - Ouska (it’s lo-fi so it’s more backing music)**

-

"What the f- Daryl?" She quickly censored herself after remembering the kid was there.

"Yer alive?!"

She looked down at herself and laughed, "Last time I checked yeah."

"You know each other?"

Sophias mum stood up and Gwen turned towards her, "yeah we met a while back, er my name’s Gwen nice to meet you."

She extended her hand but she bypassed it, going straight for a hug instead, "Thank you for finding my little girl."

"Well I didn’t do much finding, she found me, I just walked her back." Gwen shrugged and wiped her hair out of her face as her mother stood back.

"Yeah but mom look at what she let me bring back," the young girl ran over to Gwen and she immediately shrugged the bag off of her shoulder to pass it to Sophia.

"Ya find an end of the world black market connection or what?" Daryl had been pretty quiet but he turned towards Gwen and walked down the rest of the steps leading down from the RV.

She grinned, "Close enough, I found some weird houses in the middle of nowhere and the people were already dead so I just helped myself, bit awkward considering they were in the living room but I managed."

Sophia and her mother were busy talking to each other and some other man had come from- she wasn’t sure exactly but they were all chatting excitedly which gave her the time to, not so secretly, stare at his face.

"What?" He said gruffly, seeing her out of the corner of his eye and catching her in the act.

"I can’t believe you’re alive, I mean out of the three of us you two were the most likely to survive, I mean I never really doubted you would. I was just hoping, glad to know that I was right and you are that good, to be fair I’m more shocked  **I'm** still alive, would have thought that I’d be dead for sure but nope, still kicking about on this absolutely horrendous rock."

Gwen paused and took a deep breath in, and kept looking at him, "Where’s Merle?", she looked around trying to spot anyone else but she couldn't see anyone.

"Some of the group, they left ‘im behind, we went back but the bastard didn’t wait and chopped off his goddamn hand to get away."

Her jaw dropped and she blinked rapidly, trying to come up with a response to that.

"W- only him, holy  **shit** , most people would have just died, it was a dumbass decision but I mean- it worked right? As far as you know he got away?"

"Yeah, we followed the trail of blood as far as we could but he broke out of the building."

"Well at least you have hope, maybe he’ll find you..." she trailed off and saw the other man looking at you quizzically.

"Hi! My name’s-"

"You safe?" He said quickly, cutting her off.

"What? Oh yeah, I haven’t been bit," she replied just as sharply as him and then turned and muttered under her breath as he immediately lost interest, "Nice to meet you too."


End file.
